Australian and New Zealand Gardening: More "Catching up to reality (slowly!)", 1 by Kaelkitty

Kaelkitty wrote:
Hi All,
I'm in mid-April now, I have (I think) 59 threads to go. Meanwhile, a couple of things have occurred to me. Firstly, how many of us live in, or within striking distance of Adelaide. I know there are at least two other DG members that live here, and then there are the Staker's at Barmera, there are probably more. The ABC here has two big plant sales every year called the ABC Carpark Capers - one in March and the other in October. There are many stall holders from tiny home growers to bigger near commercial specialist nurseries. The sale is only on from 8am to Noon on the Saturday, so it can be a bit of a bun fight; but, on the other hand the rest of the day is free for other purposes. I started thinking about this because various people have been talking a lot about some of the more unusual bulbs - Haemanthus, Scadoxus, Lycorus, Vallota etc. I saw most of these at the last Carpark Caper in March and I scored some Wurmbea stricta, Dracunculus canariense and a couple of unusual Arums for myself. I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if some of us DGer's could meet up there? I know we would have to get a bit organised to do it, but it would be great to meet up in person. I am thinking we meet up at the gates before opening time - say 7.30am, do the sale itself individually, and then arrange a lunch or something (picnic?) for the afternoon.

The second thing which has been exercising my mind is rose cuttings - not little short ones, but big long ones from the understock, that you can turn into standards and then graft onto once they are established. The old roses at this house are just about at the end of their useful life, but they throw masses of these big green whippy things, and I would like to try my hand at grafting a few for fun - I don't really want to buy roses, given that I am renting here and I lost my Burgundy Iceberg in a pot that I brought with me from my previous house so I will have to buy another SIGH! I tried top and tailing my prunings in late winter last year but none of them took root. Does anyone have any good ideas? Just look at this thing will you - some of these long shoots are now nearly taller than me (just under five feet) and there is another one on the house side that is just as bad, if not worse!

By the way, while I am on the subject of roses - Mum says every plant of 'Cecile Brunner' she has ever had has been really feeble, or has died. All of you growing it seem to find it dead easy - so what's going wrong for her? She has about a dozen other roses, all doing quite well, so it's not like she can't grow them. I suspect bad drainage or something similar, but would appreciate any ideas that might help.

TTFN, KK.